1. Field of the Invention
Present invention relates to retracting tethers and more particularly to a retracting tether apparatus mounted to a user's belt, pants, pocket, strap or purse, and arranged to be 360 degrees rotatable about its mounting point.
2. Description of the Related Art
Retractable tethering devices have been developed that can be attached to a person through use of common attachment mechanisms such as snaps, clips, Velcro straps, pin mounting systems, bracket mounting devices and belt clipping devices. Conventional belt clipping and bracketing systems are desirable for some applications in that they are easy to mount to an article of clothing that does not have means for attaching a snap, Velcro or pinning attachment. A belt clipping system also provides an attachment means that reduces the overall hanging length of the device and minimizes its movement during activities.
One disadvantage of most conventional retractable tethering devices (“tethering devices”) using a belt clipping system is that when the retracting tether is mounted, it is generally in a fixed orientation in relation to its mounting point. Many different devices can be attached to the retracting tether's cable, such as keys, cell phones, pagers and PDAs, and when the device is in use the cable is extended from the retracting tether against a spring force. Because of its fixed orientation, the tethering device does not change its orientation to compensate for the cable being retracted at different angles. For example, keys can be attached to the cable of conventional tethering devices and the cable can be extended at different angles depending on the heights of the. However, most conventional retracting tethers do not rotate in relation to the clipping (mounting) point so regardless of height that the keys are being used, the housing hole remains in a fixed orientation. This causes excessive resistance and cable flexing or fatigue which can result in reduced overall life of the product.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,158 to Huang, discloses a tethering device for mounting on a user and having a housing assembled from an upper lid and a bottom lid. A male upper cover and a female lower cover are provided in the housing to form a reel axle for a coil spring and an extendable/retractable cable. One end of the cable is exposed to the exterior of the housing and a stop prevents the cable from fully retracting into the housing. A rivet sleeve is extended through aligned central holes in the bottom lid, the reel and the lining sleeve and is rivet fastened with its end extended through the lining sleeve. A reel axle is formed by the male upper cover, the female lower cover, and the lining sleeve, which are serially and tightly connected.
Huang claims that the tethering device can be smoothly rotated 360 degrees around the central reel axis. However, as illustrated in the figures of Huang, the belt clip is mounted by a mounting immediately adjacent to and in contact with the housing. This arrangement will likely result in a resistance between the belt clip, mounting bolt and housing and if the components are made of metal, this arrangement results in metal to metal wear. Further, any side torque on the housing could result in a torque on the belt clip causing the mating surfaces to bend, which can destroy the device's rotational capability. Further, rotational axis of the device is provided internal to the housing, which can cause complication in the design and operation of the housings internal spring arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,137 to Poulson discloses a retractable tethering device that is attached to a user's belt with its cable clipped to the rear surface of a cellular telephone case to prevent the phone from falling in the event it is accidentally dropped. The device includes a housing that swivels on its belt connection. The cable includes a strong cord wound on a spring biased spool within a housing which is pivotally connected to a spring steel belt clip. The belt clip is attached to near the center of the device's housing to the central shaft that passes through the housing with the preferred central shaft being a flat head screw journalled within a bushing sleeve spanning the side with the housing so that the housing spins around its axis.
Although it is unclear how this arrangement actually works, it appears to suffer from the same disadvantages as Huang. The bushing sleeve spans the interior of the housing such that is can interfere with the operation of the internal spring. Poulson does not disclose how the rotation riding surfaces are arranged but it likely has metal on metal moving parts that would also likely suffer from the resistance of adjacent moving metal surfaces and the resulting wear.